Everything Down

My Bangladeshi co-worker recently bought a house in Natomas with 20% down. 20% is now the norm, as it was fifteen years ago and in earlier times when we weren't drunk on easy credit.

It's interesting to hear him describe how, in Dhaka, 20% down wouldn't buy you any house, home, condo, townhouse, brownstone, dormitory, studio, shanty, mudhut, or even a brick shithouse...what you need is 100% down. Credit doesn't appreciably exist in Asia.

Suppose credit didn't exist here, or even suppose 50% down was the norm. This nation would fall apart. You mean, I have to save up cash beforehand to buy that Durango? Layaway? What, you think this is 1977? You mean I can't take 10% off my purchases today when I get that new department store credit card?

I deserve to have what I want now, and to defer payments. I should also be allowed to defer payments indefinitely (i.e., bankruptcy). Consumers have rights, you know. What do you think the latest "major overhaul" to the credit card industry is gonna do? Make it easier or harder for Merikans to have access to credit? Credit issuers were screaming when this passed, as they now have to stop the practice of universal default.

Many people today in America find ways to work with everything down, and more of us should be doing it. Interest payments are probably the #2 expense behind taxes. In 2005, $800 billion in home equity was pulled out to refinance existing debt and to keep spending. This year that figure has dropped $36 billion. This is borrowed money, folks, it ain't yours...technically you gotta pay it back.